OX has the very admirable ability to look at the city and see the potential for art just about anywhere. He finds billboards, looks at what’s around them, and uses those surroundings to inspire his takeovers of billboard spaces. For OX, even things as seemingly mundane as a concrete wall can provide inspiration. If street art is about making people look at the city differently, OX has most other street artists beat. Here’s some recent work from him in and around Paris.
Photos by OX
Today Banksy‘s website was updated with two new Olympics-themed pieces. It’s not yet clear where these new stencils are located, but London is a good bet. If they are in London, that’s going to make for an interesting situation as someone is going to have to decide whether or not to paint over these walls which are suddenly valuable tourist attractions. The stated position of the authorities is that any illegal Olympics-themed street art or graffiti is going to be destroyed ASAP, but maybe public outcry and monetary incentives could make Banksy an exception. This is especially interested given the recent round-up by British police of former graffiti writers. The Atlantic has more on this potential controversial situation.
I like seeing more art on the street, and I like these pieces by Banksy. If this work is buffed, that’s two more grey walls in London. But allow them to remain unbuffed sets an unfair double standard (particularly punishing graffiti writers). The system would be preserving street art, but in an unjust way. So, should they stay or should they go? What do you think?
Via Colossal
Photos courtesy of Banksy
This weekend saw the return of the Whitecross Street Party and the Rise of the Non-Conformists Art Show. Each year, the event gets bigger and bigger featuring an array of talented artists that display their work for several months in the heart of London. Always a fan of White Cross, this year’s line-up was the best yet featuring large scale works by Malarky, Ronzo, Shepard Fairey, Conor Harrington and so many more which will be on display until September.
Below are just some teaser images of the work, but check back for pictures of the antics from the weekend.
Continue reading “Whitecross Street Party”
LNY and ND’A visited Mexico earlier this month. Of course, they did some painting while they were there, including at el Museo Del Juguete Antiguo Mexico.
Photos courtesy of LNY and ND’A
RAE was in my hometown of Chicago a couple of weeks ago showing them how it’s done. RAE was in town thanks to Pawn Works, who had this to say about the visit:
We were very excited to be able to host Rae in Chicago to kick off an on-going mural project in the Historic Pilsen neighborhood on the Southside of Chicago of which we’ve been asked to participate in. We are working with the Alderman’s Office, The Mexican Museum of Art, The Chicago Urban Art Society and other partners to beautify a stretch of wall in the Pilsen neighborhood. With an array of amazing artists planned to come out to participate on our end we look forward to keeping everyone caught up.
Photos by Brooklynite Gallery
Let’s see what has been happening off of Vandalog this week.
Photo courtesy of M-City
While traveling from The Painted Desert Project (covered here, here and here) to Reno, Labrona and Overunder painted elsewhere around Nevada. Here’s some of what they did after the jump Continue reading “More adventures in Nevada with Overunder and Labrona”
Shake well.
Photos by ExcuseMySarcasm, Graphis, John19701970, Olson-ONOFF, Photofil, Saner HVA KGB, Startape Photographe and Zomb7.
I am a big fan of South American street art, maybe it’s because it is so different to what I tend to see in London, or perhaps it’s just because it tends to be pretty bloody good.
Peruvian artist Jade has been rather prolific over the last couple of months and here are a few of his walls, accompanied by a nice little video filmed in Ecuador.
Continue reading “An update from Jade”
The small town of La Louvière, in Belgium is host to a brilliant Urban Art exhibition being held at “Centre de la Gravure et de’limage imprimée” (The Center for Engraving and the Printed Image). Showing through September 2, 2012, “Vues sur Murs” (Wallscapes: Prints in Street Art) features an impressive list of international artists, many making new work specifically for this exhibit and also hitting the town with huge pieces.
Invader, C215, Jef Aérosol, EVOL, Ludo, Denis Meyers, Obêtre, Muga, Doctor-H, Sten & Lex, Swoon and OBEY (Shepard Fairey) are all featured in this show which spans three floors of the gallery. The show’s curator, Marie Van Bosterhaut, had the seed of the idea in 2009 after seeing an OBEY print at the home of a collector. She contacted Fairey’s people for what was initially planned to be an OBEY retrospective…
“But then it appeared it might be more interesting to invite more artists using printing techniques in street art,” said Bosterhaut of the project’s evolution. “It was really great to have all these artists working inside the museum, and also outside. There was like a great energy.”
While some of the artists knew each other, others met for the first time. “This created some small surprises,” said Bosterhaut. Evidence of this is seen in one of the exhibition’s highlights located on the top floor. There, Berlin-based EVOL has transformed several structural columns, which protrude at various levels into the exhibition space. They now appear as EVOL’s signature-style buildings and “artists like Denis (Meyers) & Ludo made some tiny stencils or billboards, creating a kind of interaction between the artists,” Bosterhaut said.
Another highlight of the show is Brussels-based artist Denis Meyers. Mostly known for the large faces he paints, he also prints unique stickers and uses hand-made woodcuts and rubber stamps to produce a wide variety of work which all screams out with his signature style. Many of his sketchbooks are also on display as well as other elements which offer a peek into the artist’s process.
Long-time French favorite Jef Aérosol‘s large iconic work greets you at the entrance of the exhibit but some of his smaller, printed images are framed on the sides and offer a more intimate experience with the artist. Jef also hit the town, painting a three-story-tall face of rocker Jimi Hendrix.
In addition to his brilliant mini-billboard, the Paris-based paste-up master Ludo and his unmistakable green paint occupy a notable section of the top floor, including a full-scale bus shelter (crappy tags included.) For the real experience though, pick up the map supplied at the front desk and follow it to the various “treasures” left by artists around the city. Ludo has posted three large pieces out on the town.
A favorite of mine is “C215” (Christian Guémy.) The Parisian stencil artist painted a large mural for the show. There are also many photographs of his stencil works, and several other painted “objects,” including three mailboxes, a shoeshine box, and a metal sign among other things.
The pioneering Italian artistic duo of Sten & Lex display some of their strong, black & white portrait posters, but the real treat from them requires a 10 minute walk to a parking lot down the road a bit. There, a dramatic and elaborate composition of black & white zig-zagging lines reveal a face that fills the wall and towers over the cars and shopping carts.
Of course the anchor of the exhibition is an extensive collection of OBEY works by American artist Shepard Fairey. In addition to a short documentary video, the display spans his career from his quirky beginnings making “Andre the Giant has a posse” stickers, to the slick, celebrity and political-themed posters pumped out by the Obey Giant Worldwide Propaganda factory today. There are dozens of his limited-edition prints with their graphically-pleasing imagery, and even a trio of OBEY skateboard decks. A definite treat for any Fairey fan.
The show concentrates on the printing aspects of urban art but there’s a ton of other multi-media work to see there as well. Too much art to mention in this article, including great stuff by Invader, Obêtre, Muga, Doctor-H & Swoon.
This is a severely edited version of a much longer story from my newly started blog, LABEAURATOIRE where you can read the whole story & see a slideshow with more than 50 photos.
IF YOU GO: Smack-dab in-between Paris & Cologne, La Louviere is about a two and-a-half hour drive from each, and just 45 minutes south of Brussels. Definitely worth the trip. But remember, it’s only showing through September 2, 2012 – so get going!
Photos by Lance Aram Rothstein (many of these photographs were shot with Film Cameras. Long Live Film!)
